|
 M P, Who? Apple, Where?
There are a lot of advantages to digital music, but it can be confusing determining what format, bitrate and file size are best suited for a given hardware solution. Check out our Digital Music Format Key Points for everything you really need to know.
MP3 (MPEG Layer III) is a digital audio compression format creating smaller files sizes by eliminating sounds that our human ears can't hear or easily pick up. WMA (Windows Media Audio) is Microsoft's proprietary audio codec, while AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is Apple's proprietary audio codec. Both claim competitive sound quality at lower bitrates.
WMA can play on music servers running Microsoft Media Center, but not on iPods. AAC plays on iPods, but not on Microsoft-based media centers. MP3 files will play on all digital music players.
| |
|
Digital Music Format Key Points |
|
|
- Bitrate - Describes how much information is taken from your CD per second during the conversion process. Lossy formats (MP3, AAC, WMA) are all described in bitrates.
- MP3 - The universal audio format, most suited for portable digital media players as it preserves sound quality with small file sizes.
- WMA - Microsoft's proprietary audio format. WMA is comparable in quality to MP3 or AAC, while WMA Lossless has sound identical to the original CD and best suited for media centers and music servers.
- AAC - Apple's proprietary audio format, best suited for portable digital media players, while Apple Lossless has sound identical to the original CD, and is suitable for media centers and music servers.
- FLAC - Open source audio format that has sound identical to the original CD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Although selecting the right digital format and bitrate are important determinants of sound quality, two other factors also significantly impact music audio fidelity.
First, not all CD-ROM drives are equally suited for digital audio extraction, or CD conversion - also known as CD ripping. After extensive testing on a variety of drives, Riptopia has selected and implemented hardware capable of consistently perfect rips.
Second, Riptopia sets the standard for industrial strength error correction by performing multiple passes to prevent the pops, skips, and clicks that often occur with low-end software and hardware. |
